Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

419

The Noxious Nineties : c. 1998

“mandatory reading” for all public school instructors.]

A N ARTICLE ENTITLED “U.S. A NNOUNCED E XCHANGE P ROGRAMS ” APPEARED IN THE S EP tember 18, 1998 edition of the Odessa (Russia) Post which heralded the results of the U.S.-Soviet Education Agreements signed in 1985 and numerous planning activities since 1985. Excerpts follow: The program is administered by the U.S. Information Service. The American Council for Collaboration in Education and Language Study (ACCELS), the International Renaissance Foundation, and the International Research and Exchanges Board for Scholars (IREX) will be responsible for processing applications, selecting candidates and administering the exchange and scholarship programs.... …ACCELS will administer the U.S.-Ukraine Awards for Excellence in Teaching, which will bring 15 Ukrainian teachers of English and American Studies to the United States... in the summer of 1999. Finalists selected from participating regions can also win computer equipment, copiers or internet access for their schools.... ...[N]ot only can Ukrainians find out more about the American way of life, our values, be liefs, hope and ambitions, Americans will also learn more about Ukraine and Ukrainians. “A Q UESTION OF E FFECTIVENESS ” BY A NDREW T ROTTER WAS PUBLISHED IN THE O CTOBER 1, 1998 issue of Education Week ’s special report entitled Technology Counts ’98—Putting School Tech nology to the Test . This important special issue should be read in its entirety for an under standing of the plusses and minuses of using technology in the classroom. One interesting chart on page 9 indicated that when the public and teachers were asked “How much do you think computers have helped improve student learning?” members of the public, in contrast to educators, were nearly twice as likely to say “A great amount”(MCI Nationwide Poll on Internet in Education, 1998). T HE O CTOBER 7, 1998 ISSUE OF E DUCATION W EEK CARRIED A FULL - PAGE ADVERTISEMENT FOR THE Sixteenth Annual Effective Schools Conference to be held in March of 1999. This writer has copied the advertisement in order to illustrate that any concern for academic instruction for American school children is a thing of the past. (The semantic deception will be obvious.)

SIXTEENTH ANNUAL EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS CONFERENCE

LEARNING FOR ALL—WHATEVER IT TAKES March 4–7, 1999

Willard Daggett, Larry Lezotte, Ray Gollarz, Michael Fullan, John Jay Bonstingl, Ernest Stachowski, Douglas Reeves, Alan November, Spence Rogers, Sandi Redenbach, Robert Slavin

NSCI NATIONAL SCHOOL CONFERENCE INSTITUTE 66

Phoenix, Arizona Pre-Conferences: